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Science fiction author William Gibson once said, “The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed.”
Somewhere, right now, people are doing things the rest of us find odd, confusing, or slightly crazy.
To them, the value is obvious.
So, they act.
Think of that first Airbnb guest paying online to sleep on some stranger’s air mattress in San Francisco.
Or the video I saw recently on LinkedIn of my friend Kyle Kunde hopping into a gold Tesla cybercab. Not only did it have no driver, it had no steering wheel.
That’s crazy, I thought.
Probably won’t do that until May of 2027.
These people are living in the future.
When it comes to AI in LBM, Shane Soule, president of ProTec Panel & Truss, has been living there, presumably in a geodesic dome, for quite some time.
Recently, on The Craft of LBM Sales Podcast, I gave him a challenge.
Three audiences: sales reps, sales managers, and business owners.
One question: How should each group use AI?
The constraint?
Twenty words or fewer per answer.
Shane failed spectacularly at the word limit.
But his answers are worth your attention.
1. Sales Reps: Record the Conversations.
Think about your last customer meeting.
What did the builder say about her next project?
That delivery issue frustrating her PM?
The competitor who keeps showing up, asking for the siding business?
Now, how much will you remember in 30 days?
Shane’s advice: “Record everything. Separate it by customer.”
With permission, record customer conversations and organize the transcripts by account. Before your next meeting, ask AI what was discussed, what you promised, and what deserves follow-up.
Then ask it to critique your performance.
Did you interrupt? Miss an opportunity to ask another question? Spend ten minutes explaining something the customer never even asked about?
Maybe your new friend Claude will point out that you mean supposedly, with a D, instead of supposably, with a B.
A gut punch to the ego, sure.
But hey—what an exciting improvement to your vocabulary!
Better still, imagine remembering a detail your customer mentioned six weeks ago that even they forgot.
Take the win.
As Shane put it, recording conversations helps you “connect dots.”
2. Sales Managers: Find the Numbers That Matter.
There are two essential sales management activities: coaching reps and holding them accountable.
Most managers we coach struggle to find time for either.
“I’ve got twelve reps, hundreds of customers, and thousands of quotes. I tell my reps to know their numbers, but I’m not sure I know my own.”
Shane recommends using AI to help build weekly and monthly reports that flag any trends worth investigating.
Which customers stopped requesting quotes?
Where are margins slipping?
Which accounts are growing?
Where should my coaching time go?
Shane’s approach: Start with the top 20% and bottom 20%.
Where can you double down on success?
Where do you need to intervene?
Now, consider your last sales meeting.
How much time went toward just reading numbers aloud? And how much went toward deciding what to do about them?
Use AI to help identify patterns, then check the findings against your experience and expertise leading in the LBM industry. Invest the time you recover by coaching reps, removing any obstacles, and pursuing new opportunities for growth.
Shane’s warning: “If you’re not doing this already, you’re probably working on the wrong things.”
3. Business Owners: Set the Example.
Back in the olden days—1999—an executive could learn just enough about websites to delegate the work.
Shane sees AI differently.
“AI is culture and it starts from the top down.”
Delegating AI to your resident tech nerd isn’t good enough.
Leaders need firsthand experience.
And too many leaders have traded FOMO for FOLD: Fear Of Looking Dumb.
But here’s the thing: We’re all beginners here. It’s so new, we’re all bumbling our way through it. Even and especially the people making this stuff.
Did you hear the apology from Anthropic, proud father of Claude, after it offered the Philadelphia Police a fabricated homicide tip?
Whoopsies!
Your early progress will be less dramatic.
You’ll treat Claude like Google. Then Claude will suggest something bigger, far more useful. And your mind will be blown.
“Hmm. Wonder if Claude can help me with this gnarly issue,”you’ll think.
And off you go . . .
Bring this experimentation into leadership meetings. Share something you tried. Ask your team how they’re using these tools to serve customers, eliminate waste, or improve results.
Give people a reason to experiment—and permission to admit when something fails.
Shane calls the cost of ignoring AI anti-ROI: the price of opportunities you never discover.
Your competitors have access to the same tools. The advantage comes from what your people learn to do with them.
Three audiences.
Three starting points.
Reps: Record the conversations.
Managers: Study the numbers.
Owners: Set the example.
Somewhere in LBM, someone is already doing something you’ll consider normal next year.
Might as well be you.
For more from Shane Soule, listen to episode 112 of The Craft of LBM Sales: Your LBM Competitors Have the Same AI Tools. So Where’s Your Competitive Advantage?
Thanks for reading.
I’ll see you back here next week.
P.S. We’ll be opening registration for our 8th annual Sales Fundamentals Workshop shortly. It’s being held March 29-31, 2027, at The Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, TX. It’s the LBM industry’s most engaging and interactive sales training event, with sales content and collaboration with me before, during, and after the event. We cap registration at 90 people and have already pre-sold 21 seats. If you are interested in joining us and saving $200 off the retail price of $4,495, email Courtney@bradleyhartmannandco.com with any questions or click here for more details.
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